Weight of Smoke
by Tallemy
Summary: Shelter is a curious concept. It can be a building, a simple object or in rare cases, a human being. One thing is sure, when you are worn out and you feel that your heart finally expired, they will do their best to put you back together. [K2]


It would be a lie to say that Kyle was somewhat used to waking up at 1am. At certain times, he was willing to make that sacrifice, especially when the brooding vigilante of South Park decided to give him a visit for intels and requests. Knowing that not many would wake him up in the middle of the night, he lazily dragged himself out of bed to the sound of someone knocking on his window. When he opened the window it was not Mysterion who greeted him.

"Kenny?" Kyle asked blinking slowly.

"Hey," the blond raised his hand to greet him and slipped into the room. "I decided to take a walk… and somehow ended up here."

"In the middle of the night?" Kyle raised a brow questioningly while brushed the snow off the blonde's coat.

"Well... Time flies when you go on walks." Kenny explained and forced a smile to his lips to accompany the white lie.

He was wiser than to try prying into the deeper reasons of his late night visit. Kenny loved to keep his problems to himself and forcing him would only make him uncomfortable in Kyle's presence.

"It sure does." he nodded knowingly, "Especially in this weather. Now get that coat off, I'll give you something to change into."

Kenny looked at him with a quizzical expression.

"Do you expect me to let you into my bed in those clothes?" Kyle raised a brow.

"Hey, I wash them regularly! Well, semi-regularly, depending on many things… But that's not the point here."

The redhead decided not to answer his previous comment. It would be a foolish thing to say that he wasn't worried, because the person standing uncomfortably in the middle of his room, as if he was waiting some kind of guidance, was only a shadow of his friend. Kenny would have already plopped down onto his bed, making comments or joking about the whole midnight visit.

Kyle quickly fished out faded pyjamas from his wardrobe and pushed it into Kenny's hands. "Here."

"Look, I didn't plan on staying––" he was about to start, but the redhead stopped him in mid-sentence.

"No! No, Kenny. You'll stay here. I'm not sure how you ended up here or why, but something is definitely not okay with you." he sighed, putting a hand on Kenny's shoulder. "I won't ask questions, alright? I won't guilt-trip you into talking about it, either. You can sleep on the other side of the bed."

"But tomorrow is school day," Kenny clutched the clothes.

"All the more reason for you to sleep, McCormick. Now, change." then he added in a softer tone. "Do this for me, at least, please."

"Yes, mom." The blonde snickered, eyes aglitter. That _please_ at the end of the sentence did wonders.

Kyle crawled back to his bed making sure that if Kenny was willing to stay, he had enough space on the other side. He felt indescribably relieved when the bed creaked under the blonde's weight as he slipped under the sheets; the boy's back facing his own.

It was strange. While he decided to keep his distance and didn't turn toward Kenny, Kyle couldn't help but ask:

"Kenny, why me?"

No answer. He could feel Kenny slowly turning under the sheets, his warm breath brushed against Kyle's nape.

"I–I dunno... I had not set goal in mind, but then I thought " _Kyle is great company_ " and by the time I realized I was sitting at your window."

"Like some kind of creeper." Kyle added with a half-smile and a scoff.

"Or Mysterion."

Kyle swore he _heard_ Kenny wriggling his eyebrows as he said that.

"Ken, don't even think of bringing Mysterion into this conversation or I'll kick your ass out of my bed."

"Why? Did he do something bad?"

"No." Kyle waited a few seconds before turning to his other side facing Kenny. "But I'd rather hear about Kenny tonight."

"Well, nothing out of the ordinary happened to good ol' me."

"Tell me about your day then. Just in general."

"We are in the same class, Kyle." he said half-heartedly. "But I guess, it was alright, by the way. Boring for most part, as always. My bread was stale, as always. How was yours?"

This wasn't going anywhere. Kenny dodged like his life depended on it.

Kyle thought about it for a while. Since he was seemingly unable to hold even the smallest of conversations with the blonde, he needed a distraction. Something that could grab Kenny's attention, at least until he managed to lull him to sleep. His speeches did wonders to masses of people. He could always try to use the same method, but getting an impromptu idea about a possible speech was harder than he thought. In the end he settled for something he'd found on the internet earlier that day.

"Today, I read about how someone weighed smoke." he blurted out.

"What?!" Kenny's eyes lit up. Great, his interest was piqued.

"It was some old geezer. Cigars were getting popular around that time, so everything was about the damned things. You can imagine." Kenny hummed in agreement. "So this old man decided to weigh smoke itself."

"That's stupid." Kenny snorted, however his voice already held hints of drowsiness.

"Yeah." Kyle admitted but decided to continue the anecdote despite its stupidity "But he still challenged them to a bet. Weighed his cigar as a whole then as he started smoking he collected the ash. It turns out the missing weight was the weight of smoke."

"I wonder if he was called Kyle Broflovski." Kenny muttered in a daze. "Because that's totally something a Kyle Broflovski would do."

"We just don't know." He quietly laughed. "Kyle Broflovskis are curious creatures"

"Hm… Indeed."

Comfortable silence enveloped them.

Then out of the blue, he felt an arm around his torso and his body being pulled closer. He didn't ask about it either and willingly accepted the blonde who shuffled closer to him under the blanket. His breath hitched at the sudden contact but still let the boy stay close to him.

It's not like he didn't want answers. No. Even now, he just wanted to tie Kenny up and interrogate him about pretty much everything, but as always, these thoughts and ideas appeared in the back of his mind after the damage had been done and Kyle would only toss oil on the fire if he dared to bring them up.

He forced his curiosity back to where it came from and instead of further words just silently linked their hands together under the blanket.

This however didn't stop the thoughts that kept going round around like a peculiar and morbid carousel. It wasn't the right time to ask questions, but this didn't mean his brain wouldn't get flooded with ideas and theories as soon as silence enveloped them.

Kenny was there. Kenny, who hardly ever had a sleepover at his place. It was always Mysterion. And most importantly Mysterion never stayed for the night. His heart was about to burst out of his ribcage and–

"You're thinking so hard I can hear your cogs whirring." Kenny murmured into his hair.

"Sorry."

The blond only sighed. Slipping lower under the sheets, so he could face Kyle.

"I came here because I needed love." he admitted in a barely audible voice. "I kind of ran out if the damn thing in every aspect."

Can you really ran out of love of all things? Kyle wondered on the abstract context. His face grew hot at the thought of someone trusting him with his feelings. Darkness did him a favour and hid his features but this knowledge gave him some newfound courage to search for the blonde's hand and intertwine their fingers.

"Just find me whenever that happens. Promise I won't go anywhere and I have lot to spare for you." he said as if to reassure him. "But Kenny… Tomorrow… tomorrow you need to answer my questions."

"Of course."

While Kyle wanted to know everything, honestly, this was enough for now. Even if he wouldn't talk about his family or problems Kyle, being the older brother, could pick up small shards of Kenny's life and the indescribable amount of live he gave to Karen in place of their parents. He was like a shelter, protecting Karen from the harshness of their reality while everyone obliviously mocked them for being poor.

Kenny deserved so much better.

So there he was, doing the only thing that came into his mind, letting Kenny know that there was a place, a shelter he can visit whenever he gets tired.

Just like the _old geezer_ in his story, Kyle weighed smoke as Kenny's breathing took up a slow and steady place. He wondered how Kenny could move around so freely.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-..-.-

According to the urban legend, Sir Raleigh tried to weigh smoke the way it was described above. His main goal was to somehow lessen the prohibition on smoking in the royal court.


End file.
